Local Government Contacts

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Be Pro-Choice in Education--It Pays!

School choice should be a fundamental right in America. Not just legally, but backed financially with a voucher system that allows parents to use the taxes they pay for education for whatever school they choose.

There is good documentation for how well kids do in private schools, but this article shows there is a fiscal benefit to the state as well. Alaska is the leading spender of public money on education, but we also have failing schools -- 7 of the state's 40 high schools have drop out rates higher than 40%. Forty percent drop out rate! This is an outrage. This is terrible. This is underreported!

It is time to realize public schools are nothing more than indoctrination centers teaching political correctness not history, satisfaction with incompetence not a desire to be excellent, mindless acceptance not critical thinking.

According to an article at Heritage Foundation by Kirk Johnson,

Educational choice can improve educational achievement and states’ bottom lines. Not only do choice programs help students from lower-income families attend schools that they otherwise might not be able to attend, but they can also save money in the process. This should come as no great surprise; after all, it was a Nobel-prize winning economist, Milton Friedman, who first advocated such scholarships 50 years ago.[8]A record number of state legislatures have considered school choice legislation this year, indicating that such plans are gaining in popularity.[9]More should follow suit to make similar opportunities standard across the country.